Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day for You?

Image is The Landing of Columbus from Wikimedia Commons. Christopher Columbus and others showing objects to indigenous people on shore.

Last week, Mayor Kim Janey on October 6, 2021 issued an executive order declaring the second Monday of every October will be Indigenous Peoples Day in Boston. She urged the city to "observe Indigenous Peoples Day in lieu of Columbus Day by reflecting upon the dispossession of the homeland of the Massachusetts Tribe, who lived here for millenia prior to the arrival of European settlers . . ."

A number of Massachusetts cities and towns have taken similar actions in recent years.The City of Newton renamed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day last year. Brookline in 2017 similarly voted to establish Indigenous Peoples Day on Columbus Day.

On Monday, Newton Community Pride will hold Newton's first official Indigenous Peoples Day ceremonial celebration at Abermarle Park from noon to 5:00 p.m. There will be forty artists, performers, speakers, vendors and community vendors present to celebrate the event.

Brookline will also host a celebration from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Florida Ruffin Ridley School.

On October 8, 2021, President Biden, in keeping to the pattern of his predecessors, issued a ceremonial proclamation of Columbus Day. He also noted that celebrating the famous Italian's exploration should include acknowledging Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities and "the work that remains ahead of us to fulfill the promise of our Nation for all."

Giving life to those words, the president also proclaimed that October, 11, 2021 should be known as Indigenous Peoples Day. 

"We must never forget the centuries-long campaign of violence, displacement, assimilation, and terror wrought upon Native communities and Tribal Nations throughout our country. Today, we acknowledge the significant sacrifices made by Native peoples to this country — and recognize their many ongoing contributions to our Nation," reads the president's Indigenous Peoples Day Proclamation.

Without congressional legislation to support it, it seems the president's Indigenous Peoples Day Proclamation is largely ceremonial. For Indigenous Peoples Day to become a federal holiday that is observed every year, it will need to be legislated by Congress. The president's proclamation is specific to the year 2021.

Indeed, a bill to change the federal holiday, Columbus Day, to Indigenous Peoples Day was just introduced to Congress on September 30, 2021.  It is far from being enacted.

But for now, the federal government this year will regard the second Monday of October 2021 as both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. Time will tell if the nation follows the trend in Massachusetts in renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day going forward.

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